Days after seeing Zero Dark Thirty I’m still thinking about its normalisation of torture. Rolling Stone’s great writer Matt Taibbi concurs in a stinging piece: Back to the “enhanced interrogation” in the first scene: conducted by chameleonic Australian actor Jason Clarke’s “Dan” character while Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain’s Maya character looks on, it’s shocking, horrific,…
Showing all posts tagged human rights
Australia reinforces vulture capitalism on compliant Pacific island
Australia, like so many other Western countries, increasingly believes it should outsource government services to private companies under the guise of “efficiency”. It’s nothing of the sort and merely removes a key level of accountability. In my forthcoming book on disaster capitalism I examine the ways in which multinationals are making a fortune from asylum…
Reflections on #ZeroDarkThirty
Last night I saw the Oscar-nominated film, Zero Dark Thirty. It’s a brilliantly made work, brutal, passionate, eerie, exciting and compelling. It’s also a shameless piece of CIA propaganda. It opens on 9/11 and frames many of the successful and failed terror attacks since then as part of one, big al-Qaeda plot, which is dishonest.…
My Israel Question Arabic edition released
My first book, My Israel Question, was released in 2006. Nearly seven years after becoming a best-seller, I’m proud to announce that one of the Middle East’s leading publishers, All Prints, has just released an updated Arabic edition. The message of the book has only become more relevant, the importance of challenging the Zionist…
Perhaps the handiest guide to real anti-Semitism you’ll ever read
Yes. (Brilliance from the amazing US cartoonist, Eli Valley, who recent work, The Diary of Dr Loewenstein, inspires me still).
Why Kafka lives in Palestine
Amira Hass in Haaretz: The Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli police in the West Bank will continue trying to convince the High Court of Justice on Monday that the routine of fear in which two elderly farmers live due to attacks by settlers is reasonable and proportionate. In the name of the IDF and…
Still dissecting the US-led torture regime post 9/11
We are still discovering the depth and extent of the crimes committed by the Americans in Iraq post 2003. I’m proud to call journalist Mike Otterman, mentioned below, a good friend. This report by Jeff Kaye on FireDogLake: Journalist Michael Otterman, author of the excellent book,… American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and…
Supporting Palestine is protected by the US constitution
At a time when Palestine activism in the US is becoming more effective (and more threatening to the Zionist lobby), this initiative is welcome: The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), in collaboration with the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), the Student Speech Working Group and other organizations, today announced the launch of the Palestine Solidarity Legal…
Israeli “democracy”: giving Ethiopian women birth control without consent
Words fail (via the Independent): Israel has admitted for the first time that it has been giving Ethiopian Jewish immigrants birth-control injections, often without their knowledge or consent. The government had previously denied the practice but the Israeli Health Ministry’s director-general has now ordered gynaecologists to stop administering the drugs. According a report in Haaretz,…